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Fear of racial backlash allowed child sex abuse to go on

Andrew Norfolk

May 24 2013, 1:01am, The Times

Rochdale social workers 'did not know how to identify and assess the risks faced by local children'Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

An abject failure of local authority leadership that exposed girls to years of exploitation by an organised street-grooming network is disclosed in a review of the Rochdale child sex scandal published today.

The independent report reveals that senior officers on Rochdale council knew of concerns that local children were being used and sold for sex but did not take adequate measures to protect them.